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      By looking through my work this year, I hope readers notice the growth I've gone through- both in writing and as a person- as I have. Looking back, I can see that my strengths are essay's and not creative writing, so I hope to grow more still by becoming better at writing creatively. I was very surprised to see, first, the amount of work I've done and forgotten about, and second, the change I can see evident in my writing. Going back through my work was one of the most interesting projects I've had to do all year.I am most proud of my Odyssey Persuasive Essay, because I try to prove an opinion that most people didn't share, and I enjoyed the challenge.



1) Macbeth Character Analysis:     This was one of the first projects I did for the year. I'm glad it was, because somewhere along the line I completely forgot to write a conclusion. Besides that, I think I did well for a project at the beginning of the year. The project had me go very deep into the macbeth as I needed to map out his transformation throughout the book. Looking back on my writing style, I can see how far I've come from the beginning of the year. So here it is, Macbeth's Transformation, fully corrected and with a conclusion paragraph.

 
Macbeth started out as a loyal friend and subject but was then transformed into an evil tyrant.
 
In Act 1 scene 2 of Macbeth, a captain comes into the throne room bleeding from multiple wounds. He has just arrived from a battle between the royal army and a group of rebels in which the royal army emerged victorious. He stumbles up to king Duncan and informs him on the outcome of the battle, then says this about Macbeth “For Brave Macbeth – well he deserves the name – distaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution.” (Act 1, scene 2, page 4) Macbeth was the hero of this battle, showing his courage in battle by killing the enemy everywhere he went. Macbeth has earned the trust and admiration of the king and the other Thanes; through doing this he has proven his loyalty to his kingdom. At this point in the play Macbeth is as loyal as a man can be, but that is about to change.
Later, in Act 1, scene 2, king Duncan receives the news that the Thane of Cawdor betrayed him and helped the enemy to organize this battle. He decides to go after the Thane and promote Macbeth to the position of Cawdor, so he says. “What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath gained.”(Act 1, scene 2, page 6)  Now that the old Thane of Cawdor has been taken care of the noble Macbeth will succeed him. In promoting Macbeth King Duncan sets off a chain of events that lead to his own death. This is because by promoting Macbeth he confirms the witches’ prophecy that Macbeth will be promoted to Thane of Cawdor, then become king.
In Act 1 scene 5, Macbeth writes to his wife about the witches’ prophecy that he will become Thane of Cawdor, and then King and how shortly after he was promoted the first part of the prophecy came true. His wife is excited, she interprets the witches’ prophecy to be an invitation to kill king Duncan, she and Macbeth start to form a plan to make the second part of the prophecy come true. After listening Macbeth says, “We will speak further”(Act 1, scene 5, page 18). He wants to be king but doesn’t have the time to talk. Lady Macbeth then tells him not to worry and to leave everything to her to set up. This is significant in his transformation as it is the first time he considers what he will need to do to become king.
In act 1 scene 7, Macbeth has king Duncan over for dinner; in the middle of the feast Macbeth goes to a private room and debates whether or not he should kill king Duncan. Lady Macbeth then has to come in and blackmail him into wanting to go through with it. Macbeth then says this“ I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show; false face to hide what the false heart doth know.”(Act 1, scene 7, page 23) He is ready to kill king Duncan, and advises his wife to pretend not to be plotting the death of their king. Macbeth is now moments away from his attempt on the life of Duncan. He is ready to take charge, start killing, and start to turn away from being a loyal subject.
In Act 2 scene 2, Macbeth has just killed Duncan. He comes to his wife, shaking and says, “I have done the deed, did though not hear a noise?“ (Act 2, scene 2, Page 27) He is very nervous because after he actually killed the king he starts to wonder whether or not he should have done it and he imagines how easy it would have been for someone to wake up and discover him. He’s made mistakes and not followed the plan so Lady Macbeth starts to panic and takes over. This was Macbeth's first kill, and because of the influence of the prophecy and his wife this first kill will make all the rest easier and more justifiable.
In act 3 scene 1, Macbeth believes that Banquo might realize that he murdered Duncan. So he sends murderers to take care of him and his son. After meeting with the murderers he says “Banquo, thy souls fight, if find heaven, must make it out tonight”(Act 3, scene 2, page 45). If Banquo is going to die then he needs to do it tonight. This marks to point at which Macbeth truly loses his old self. He was willing to kill his best friend, and an innocent child in order to keep himself safe. He is no longer a friend to anyone.
In act 4 scene 1,Macbeth realizes that other people know that he murdered Duncan so he goes to consult the weïrd sisters “I conjure you by that which you profess, howe’er you come to know it, answer me.” (Act 4, scene 1, page 64) He wants to find out all he can about what the future will hold for him, because he thinks that he will be able to defeat his enemies by knowing it. Macbeth is putting complete faith in the thing that is destroying him and turning him into the twisted, evil person that she is.
In act 4, scene 3 Malcolm and Macduff meet in England, at first they suspect each other of murdering Duncan, but then decide that the other is trust worthy and agree that Macbeth is the enemy, “But Macbeth is”. (Act 4, scene 3, page 73) They say that Macbeth is a tyrant and is poisoning the kingdom. Macbeth has now turned friends into enemies and has transformed into a worse version of the Thane of Cawdor before him.
In act 5 scene 3, everyone knows that Macbeth killed Duncan in order to become king. When a servant enters his room, but does not speak quickly enough Macbeth starts to yell “The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! Where got’st thou that goose look?” (Act 5, scene 3, page 87). He then goes on to say that 10,000 soldiers are on their way to the castle and Macbeth wants to send out soldiers to skirt the country and hang all those who might help the soldiers on their way. This decision is beyond all reason and could only be thought up by a ruler who has lost his mind.
In act 5 scene 7, Macbeth knows that the army of soldiers is coming to kill him. But is either to stubborn or crazy to give up “They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly. But bearlike I must fight the course. What’s he that was not born of woman? Such a one am I to fear, or none.” (Act 5, scene 7, page 94). They have trapped him with nowhere to go but he still wants to fight back. He probably knows he is going to die but by now his lust for power clouds his vision to the point where he doesn’t care.
          At this point macbeth's Transformation is complete and fully evident. He has betrayed his friends and allies and turned from a loyal servant to a monster. He was pushed over the edge by his wife, but once he got going he didn't stop. He started out killing for the king, for a just cause. But ended by killing women and children to gain power for himself.

2) Memoir Vignette:
     This project was inspired by a canoe trip I took as an incoming 7th grader. I had to write a four page short story about it and include writing tricks like humor, simile's, and magic three. Looking back on it, the writing style seems forced and awkward. I honestly hope I've grown since then. But here it is in all its glory, "Out of the Country Without a Passport"  

     I had just started summer break after 6th grade when my mom asked me,(Opener)
“How would you like to go on a week long canoe trip in a few weeks? (Dialogue)
As I hadn’t done much camping at that point in my life I said that I definitely would.
She had found this camp, in the way of most things like this, through a friend. (Humor)This friend had a husband who had gone on a boating trip as a counselor and had seen a group of  people who were part of this camp. So my Mom looked into it, signed me up, then asked me. (Magic 3)
I didn’t care much that she had signed me up before asking, it wouldn’t be far from home, and it sounded like fun, I definitely wasn’t disappointed.
     So, when the day of the trip arrived, me and my dad got up early in the morning to drive me to the house of a friend who was also going. When I got there, me, my friend, and another kid who I didn’t know got into the car of this friends dad and  shared the small space with enough comic books to last us several trips to the moon (by car).(Hyperbole) None of these comic books were mine, but when we got to the campsite I was familiar with a lot more characters than I had been previously.
     I arrived at the campsite to some surprising news. My other two friends and I (I can now refer to the other kid in the car as a friend. It’s amazing how long car rides bring people together) (Humor) represented half of the campers going on this trip. There were six of us. Besides us, there were three counselors, but I’m not going to call them “counselors” in this story because they only ever cooked for us, so from now on they will be called, “cooks” or “night watchmen”.
     After a small lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs we set out in our canoes, each holding a rower, a steer-er, and suitcases belonging to the campers. (Magic 3)We rowed for an hour or two, then landed on a small island that looked like it had been a sandbar foremost of its life.(Simile/personification) After setting up camp- at the highest point possible- (Humor) we introduced ourselves. The two friends I mentioned before both live deep in Mount Airy and read for half of every day, (Hyperbole) besides them, there was a girl who lived in a large suburb, and whose father apparently owned most of it. (Humor) There was a boy a little older than I was who camped a lot but had huge problems with boy scouts (Humor). The last girl I can’t remember much about, but my impression of her is that she spent most of her time on her cellphone, which was one of the few items on the “DO NOT BRING” list for the trip (Humor). We were an interesting group, early on the rich girl developed an obsession with the boy, but he hated her (do we see a theme here?) (Humor) so every time he did or said something that would send a normal girl into a rage she would take it out on me. The week was full of wild screams and overturning canoes (Metaphor). Me, my two book fiend friends, and the boy on one side and rich girl and texting girl on the other. (I should point out that texting girl wasn’t on rich girl’s side because of thoughts on what was going on with the rest of us. It was because she didn’t care and she was the only one who wouldn’t whack rich girl on the head when she tried to go after me)
Each day after breakfast we packed up and set out for the next campsite, once we got there we would unpack, eat lunch, then explore (Magic 3).
     The mornings were always the same, with me stumbling out of bed with bruises from sleeping in a tent, then eating quickly before setting off again .It was in the afternoons when we needed to entertain ourselves.
Building structures with sand, exploring, and making up random songs (Magic 3) were the main things we did. If those didn’t sound fun, we would go to our default. Burning things (Humor).
This sort of fun was new to me, I had never before needed search this hard for entertainment or something to do because I always had computers, television, and I lived in a big city (Magic 3).I never knew that planning things to do for a week could be so hard, by the fourth day I resolved to ask my parents how they planned our vacations. I needed to adjust myself to a new way of life three hours from where I lived.
After a day of doing whatever  it was we felt like, be it swimming, fishing, or- onone occasion- throwing rocks at each other (Magic 3/Humor). We would sit around the campfire and burn  stick, burn leaves, burn apples and even burn small fish (Rep for effect/ Humor) to keep ourselves occupied as the cooks made dinner. During the trip this was the place where I felt most at home, the heat of the fire was comforting, and it felt like the thing that drove me forward through the day looking towards the time I could relax. It was the point at the end of the day when everyone really got along well.
     When the trip was finally over and we’d burnt our last goodbye (Metaphor/ Humor) I went home, and when my mom asked
“So, was it fun?”  (Dialogue)
I told her about all the great fun we had and the songs we made up and the objects we burnt (Magic 3). I said that I’d had a lot of fun and thanked her for telling me about it.
     But it wasn’t until much later, after a trip to Africa, when someone would ask me how I liked the trip, I said the same sort of things I’d said after the canoe trip. I went on a seventeen hour flight to have the same great time a three hour drive brought me (Realization).

3) The Odyssey Compare/Contrast Essay:
     Here is my compare and contrast essay, where I gave evidence as to why Odysseus and Poseidon are so similar in character. I enjoy looking back on this piece because the idea I had was a little different from the way most people thought of the relationship between the two character in "The Odyssey". Wile most people thought Odysseus was the complete opposite of Poseidon, I set out to prove the traits they shared.


     Not many people consider Poseidon and Odysseus to be similar in character. In fact, Odysseus is widely considered to be more like Athena, Poseidon's rival and direct opposite. But there is plenty of evidence to contradict this. Odysseus and Poseidon react in the same way during many different situations. After Odysseus blinded his son, Poseidon made Odysseus's life miserable, and when Odysseus finally returned home, he discovered how the suitors had treated his wife and son and killed every last one of them. The only huge difference is that Odysseus needs to fear death. Odysseus and Poseidon are both protective of their family, powerful, and proud. But Odysseus knows when strength isn't the way forward; he is mortal so he knows that in order to stay alive he needs to use a combination on strength and brains. He is the embodiment of the rivalry between Poseidon and Athena.
        Both Odysseus and Poseidon are protective when it comes to family, and are quick to kill or disgrace anyone who dishonors one of their own. When Odysseus finally gets home to Ithaca and learns of the suitors defying his house and name, he is quick to learn all who betrayed and disgraced him in his absence “Go now, gather crusts from all the suitor, and test them, so we can tell the innocent from the guilty" (The Odyssey: pg.366 line 397-398). This shows that he stops at nothing, even killing women if they disgraced himself and his wife Penelope to defend his honor and family. In the same way, Poseidon answered the curse invoked by the Cyclops when Odysseus blinded him "Hear me Poseidon, god of the sea blue main that rocks the earth. If I really am your son and you claim to be my father, come grand that Odysseus, raider of cities, Laertes' son who makes his home in Ithaca never reaches home" (The Odyssey: pg.228 line 585-590). Because of what Odysseus did to his son, Poseidon continuously drove Odysseus off coarse forcing him miles and years away from home; he was only spared his life because Athena took pity on him. Poseidon and Odysseus both went to somewhat ridiculous ends to humiliate the people who harmed their family.
     Even though Odysseus and Poseidon have great devotion to their families, they also each have a trait that can sometimes mask their love for the people close to them. They are both very proud, with a need to get themselves the most glory they can and uphold the honor they've earned. Odysseus shows this when he is heading straight through the path of Scylla. Instead of speeding himself through with only a few deaths in his crew, he has to put on his armor and stand ready to fight "So I shouted. They snapped at each command, no mention of Scylla - How to fight that nightmare?" (The Odyssey: pg.278 line 241-242). He did this so he could try to kill Scylla, even though he knew it would cost him a lot of men he wanted to have the glory of killing something to unreachable for any other mortal man. Similar to this, in the legend of Poseidon and the walls of Troy; when Poseidon is threatened and refused money for assisting in building the walls of Troy by the king at the time he becomes furious and floods the countryside. Then set upon the walls with a sea monster. He needed to do this because the king offended his pride.
     Odysseus may be prideful, but he knows when he can't get out of a situation with strength alone. He recognizes that he needs to take care of himself so he can get back to his family. In the Cyclops’s cave he tricks the Cyclops into drinking extremely concentrated wine to make him slow, because he knows that they won't be able to open the cave if the Cyclops is dead "Here, Cyclops, try this wine - to top off the banquet of human flesh you've bolted down" (The Odyssey: pg.222 line 388-389). This shows that he can think on his feet and uses his brain when he can't use his sword. Poseidon is the opposite, because he never takes the smart way out, and uses his powers to destroy his enemies in the most humiliating ways. He doesn't ever recognize that he is outmatched, because the worst that can happen to him is a tiny bit of pain or a short term punishment. Being a god, he doesn't worry about that sort of thing, and he doesn’t think it’s important to try to take care of beings that aren’t necessarily as powerful or immortal as he is. Poseidon is constantly trying to overthrow Zeus or get the best of Athena, and even though he almost never succeeds he always tries again later because he doesn't know the meaning of defeat and can't recognize when he is being arrogant or repetitive. He doesn’t understand compassion for others, and lets his instincts for power and pleasure rule his life.
     It cannot be denied that Odysseus and Poseidon are very much the same. They have gone to every extent to protect their family and their pride cannot be matched. But Poseidon doesn't know when to stop, and goes to far when Odysseus would have stopped. Poseidon is a god, so he doesn't have to worry about death, and twenty years means nothing to him. Odysseus has to stay alive, even if it is just to protect his family and get back home. He knows that he needs to use his head instead of his sword sometimes because he cannot risk death the way Poseidon can. If Odysseus were a god with no worries about dying or family he would act the same as Poseidon.

4) Macbeth Creative Project:
     This game was made as my creative project during the Macbeth unit this year. I used a program called Scratch to make it, and posted it on the Scratch website. I remember having a lot of fun making it, even though I spent hours each day for a week to finish it just in time. The game follows Macbeth through his transformation, and includes the quotes I used to in my essay. The link to the game is here:

5) Independent Reading Project 1:
     To do this project, I needed to choose a book to read, then write a review of it. The book I chose is called "It Happened in Boston" by Russel H. Greenman. It is a book about a mentally unbalanced man and the situations he gets himself into, but you can read more about that in the actual review.


The author of “It Happened in Boston” is a man named Russel H. Greenan. This was his debut novel and he went on to write “Nightmare”, “The Queen of America”, “ The Secret Life of Algernon Pendleton”, “Heart of Gold”, “ The Bric-a-brac Man”, “Keepers”, “Can of Worms”, “Doomsnight”, and “Glamour Doom”., all of which were published and made famous around the world.
It happened in Boston is from the point of view of a man (who goes unnamed) who tells
about his life as a painter, and eventually, a killer. From the beginning, the reader can tell that this man is unbalanced because he explains that he can sit down and transport himself to any time period he wants by closing his eyes. Also, because he is suspicious of pigeons spying on him so he poisons some bread and puts it on the windowsill. There is a lot of conflict in the story, both inside the main character and with others due to the characters twisted mental condition. To name a few, his wife, an art dealer, and a sickly insurance manager.
He is an extremely talented artist, and creates many works of art that are approaching, if not equal to the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. The problem, at first, is that he can never seem to catch a break, so doesn’t get much money. When someone finally does start to pay him for his paintings, they end up involving him deeply in art forgery and steal his wife. That’s when he loses his mind.
My favorite character in “It Happened in Boston” would have to be the unnamed protagonist. His journey really picks up on human emotion and how we react when betrayed on every turn. Another thing I enjoyed about this character was that, even though I knew what he did was insane he seemed to approach his conclusions logically and never acted unbalanced.
Although he was my favorite character in the story, I don’t think I can relate to him. I’m not a bad artist, but I wouldn’t consider doing it professionally. (SPOILER) I’ve never killed anyone, let alone seven people as a sacrifice to meet and overthrow god. Also, I don’t suffer from paranoia or depression, so I can’t say I know what that feels like.
I love this book; right from the beginning I could tell that it would be interesting because you don’t know what is true and what is the crazy ranting of a madman, so it pays to make predictions and assumptions because they will help you make sense a weirdly played out story. I also enjoyed learning about all the complexities that go into painting a portrait, or carving a statue.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to early readers, because in all honesty it would turn them off reading for a very long time. However, If the reader is experienced and is prepared for many hours sitting in a chair mumbling just to make sense of the storyline then I think they will enjoy this brain twister immensely.

6) Four Journal Entries:
     These are four journal entries that I've written through out the year. It's interesting to look back on them because they document my daily life at different parts of the year and all the ways I've changed. They are all free write, so looking through my journal, I found a couple lengthy entries about how I don't like writing journal entries. But the pieces I've chosen for this show my writing at different parts of the year. I can't say I'm proud of the amount of dead words present.

1)
     My first week was great! I had a great time this week but I'm still really exhausted. It was a long week and there have been a lot of things to take in, I've enjoyed all of it.
     The only thing I'm not happy about is how long it will take to get our laptops. After we get them, life will be a lot easier.
     I enjoy the atmosphere of the school and I feel like I know everyone already.

2)     
     Because of my past actions most people expect nothing but the best from me. This puts a lot of pressure on my head because it makes me feel like I have a responsibility to keep up with those expectations. So I feel frustrated if I don't do well on something. It makes it way easier to disappoint people. It feels good to help people but sometimes I wish i wasn't the person that everyone went to for help. It would be great if there was someone with that responsibility.

3)
      I had a lot of fun over break, I even enjoyed shoveling my massive driveway when it finally snowed. I was able to balance work with relaxation relatively well, with a day of homework, then a day of rest. A little before new years day some friends of my parents came over from Cleveland, so we spent a few days in center city walking around playing tourist. But we also had a fair amount of time doing nothing at home.
     At the moment I'm working on m spanish 4 benchmark. The work isn't hard, all we need to do is review a movie we watched before break, then choose a soundtrack to go along with a few scenes.

4)
     A good story teller is someone who can make whatever story they are telling feel alive and make it connect to the listener. The Odyssey Kicks off with a bit of foreshadowing on what happens at the end of the story. The Main characters so far are Athena, Zeus, Poseidon, and Odysseus.

Introduction:

            One of our most creative projects was our very first which is the Me Magazine. The students had to make a magazine about themselves with an editor’s letter, 2 articles and advertisements about the articles.

Link

What did you find most challenging about this project?
Actually connecting the various globalization topics to things in Philadelphia.

How did you go about collecting the images or selecting the images?
I wandered around the city on the hottest day ever with 3 other students and took pictures of the appropriate topics.

Which image is your favorite? Why? Elaborate.
The Picture Of the archway entrance to China Town. It stands as a literal entrance to an entire culture.

How prevalent is the evidence of globalization in Philadelphia? Do you think it is more or less so (evident) than in other large cities in the US? Why Why not?
I would say it is extremely prevalent in some areas and completely dry in others. Some parts of the city are entirely self dedicated while others are cultural hubs.

​Throughout our year as ninth graders in Ms.Dunn English class, we have wrote Journals. Our Journals are about many different things and our opinions on them. We could either do a free write and just write what comes to mind or how we were feeling, or we could answer the journal prompt that was written on the board for us to answer. Our Journals would also relate to a story that we are reading as a class. Below are my top four Journals that I really enjoyed writing.

What are people’s expectations of you? What are your own? Some of the expectations put on me by others are to be mature, responsible, peaceful, hardworking, to know how to do almost any and everything, and to always be blithe. These are not expectations I put on myself though. I live by the expectations I have for myself and not the expectations other people have of me. The expectations I have for myself are to not let little things ruin my day, to set an example for everyone, act my age not my shoe size, and to stay positive.

 

Why write?

The main reasons why I think we write is, because it is a way of communicating, showing your knowledge, and it is an eloquent way of expressing yourself to yourself or others. Writing is a very useful skill in my eyes.

         You can communicate through writing, by writing letters, notes, and it could even help you speak to people who can’t hear. Communicating through writting is a great method of learning and teaching so it could also help expand your knowledge.

         Writing is a way of showing your knowledge. I believe this because you have to write what you learn in school and many other places. Writing also shows that you know how to read and that you know how to speak the language you are writing in. Writing is also a way you could record your knowledge. You cannot always remember everything you say or learn. Therefore, when it comes down to your knowledge writing is a big aspect.

 Writing is an eloquent way you can express yourself to yourself. I believe this because when you write in a journal or diary, you are writing what you think about something or how you are feeling. This is a great way to relieve stress. Writing to yourself could also keep you out of drama by writing down things that you may not like about somebody or something.

 

Memoir Notebook Free write Nov. 29

Being a freshman at SLA for me is very exciting, fun, and I had to learn how to adjust to it. In the beginning of the school year, I knew I was going to make many friends, but I thought they were only going to be freshman. I met many 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th, graders. Well not many 11^th and 12^th graders but its all right I will meet more as the days go by. I really loved how SLA have colored streams for all of the freshmen obviously I was out in red stream (which is the BEST stream ever with the BEST teachers ever) my connection with red stream is closer than ever. I look at everyone as one of my sisters or brothers. I also met 9^th graders outside of red stream through my friend that came from my old school Hamilton. I have no classes at all with them so I really did not like the beginning of the school year too much. However, if they were in the same stream as me then I would not be able to meet more people out of red stream. Now that I have gotten used to this school, the people in it, and the environment in and around the school I am extremely happy that I chose this school and I made really close friends in red stream and around our school that have my back and who will never let me down. I also know that I worked hard this marking period and my report card will show and it will be AWESOME!

 

Journal response to one Freedom Writer OR writes your own FWD Entry. What would yours say?

My favorite diary in the freshman year fall 1994 is on page 11-12 diary #4. This is my favorite because I could relate to it in a way. I would also want to see a fight just for the fun of it. Once I was hit during a fight of insolent children, and I did not do anything but stumble and almost fall. It was unexpected, but it was by accident the person was jumping up and down and was not really paying attention to the people around him. For the rest of the day, I was a little shocked because I never was  hit like that; also, because I can be a little over dramatic in situations like that. So, I could relate to this journal in a way.

 

I cant wait to be finished with this chapter in my life

This is the link to the project.​

The most challenging aspect of this project was simply trying to find where globalization is evident in the city of Philadelphia. Not that there was a shortage of ideas, on the contrary, it was just that my ideas were often confused with ways Philadelphia impacts the world, not vice versa. Also some topics were more challenging that others. For example, security and terrorism, but I think I was just over thinking the assignment.

Most of the images required me to travel around the city - whether it was a special trip to China town or 30th street station. However, many of the pictures were actually of items or place that I pass in my daily routine. For example, the t-shirt marked with "made in Jordan" evidenced how trade influences Philadelphia. My favorite picture was probably the China town wall, just because I had seen it a few times, but I had never necessarily noticed its elegance. 

There is an abundance of places where globalization is evident within the city that most people generally wouldn't consider prior to this project. Everything from the clothes that we wear to the cars that we drive are pieces of globalization. I would assume that Philadelphia has the same amount of globalization, if not more, than most other large cities. Many of the feats are the same; however, there are certain characteristics about Philadelphia that I would assume are devoid in other cities, for example, China town. 

​Here it is

Reflection

I think the hardest thing about this project was trying to make the connections with other articles. I also had trouble with my laptop so transferring the pictures was the most difficult part of the benchmark. I knew exactly what i needed to do to get the connection between my topics and my neighborhood so I went out and looked around so the pictures that I needed. I knew that for technology, I had an MP3 player and so that was the first thing I took a picture of. My favorite picture is my culture picture because I see it as a symbol of hope for the community and also other cultures all over the world makes candles, pottery, and other things the last for generations and generations and also tell stories. I think that globalization is prevalent equally around all the big states because we all are sort of in the same predicament. We all need cultures, religions, education, technology, money, etc. It's what makes the world go round.

You can find my presentation here.

Reflection:
    What I found most challenging about this project was finding things that related to topics that I wanted to use. Even if it was something that you could find that connected the world in America, that didn't mean that you could find it in Philadelphia to take a picture and to really show that it was a part of my life. Even though I know that the world is connected, I didn't realize how much of that you could actually see or how to connect the things we saw everyday with that knowledge. To collect images I started with topics that I knew I would want to go over and then I seriously thought about where I have seen those things in my daily life. For example, I used the Salvation Army as a representation of international organizations which didn't occur to me until I really sat down and thought about organizations that I saw everyday. I had the information I needed on globalization and I had the knowledge of the things I was surrounded by, the problem was really pulling those two things together. And once I did I went around my own neighborhood and the school's neighborhood and I took pictures with my camera.
    My favorite picture is the picture of fruit from Trader Joe's because I went there in the first place because I knew that we got our fruit from other places. What I loved the most was that Trader Joe's is so out there with it, they really show you where we get our food. And the picture in the presentation shows two different foods from two totally different places in the same place. I think that once you really take a step back and look that Philadelphia has more than enough examples of globalization all over the place. Sometimes it's hard to see that because we live here, but it's so obvious when you take a closer look. And as far as Philadelphia is compared to other places, I would say that if it isn't well above other places then it is definitely even. Maybe New York has more diversity, it is a huge eastern city. I think that it's just difficult to see globalization in a place where you are so much a part of the society.

Here it is. Reflection is in benchmark. 

Reflection:
What did you find most challenging about this project?
I think what I found most challenging was putting in words how one aspect connected to globalization. I live it everyday so I wouldn't put much detail into it, so it was challenging.

How did you go about collecting the images or selecting the images?
First I selected topics and thought about places I've been or walked by before. Most of my pictures were in the city or things you can find anywhere, like police of BMW.

Which image is your favorite? Why? Elaborate.
My favorite image was either the China Town gate or the Yoga club. The Friendship Gate is colorful and symbolic with the red and gold. The yoga club has a lotus flower on top and flowers in India represent  long life, honor, and good fortune. You can see the globalization in these pictures.

How prevalent is the evidence of globalization in Philadelphia? Do you think it is more or less so (evident) than in other large cities in the US? Why Why not?
The globalization is easy to see in Philadelphia. This city is the home of many cultures and those cultures all have different components of globalization.

Link to PDF

​History Today,Science/English tomorrow.

Also I would like to Formally introduce Molly The Owl, she will be your judge today... specifically for Kimmy.

This entry will mark my second to last one :( makes me a little upset because I wont really have a reason to share what I think or how I feel anymore (not like i have been doing these a lot) but I felt like when I did do them, I felt better about myself.

* My next one will be just as good as the one I wrote for the baseball team after our last game.

Here is a link to my benchmark

Reflection:

• What did you find most challenging about this project?
• I found it most challenging to decide on pictures to take and getting to the locations. Some things that I wanted to take photos of I didn't have access to getting there. I also found it difficult to directly relate my photo to that theme, some times I would end up focusing on a different theme with that photo also.
  
• How did you go about collecting the images or selecting the images?
• To collect images, I made a list of broad ideas then just wandered downtown until I found something that was interesting. Then I thought of places or things to take pictures of to finish. So I could find the object then easily capture it. It was also hard to get some pictures because some places like The Parkway was under construction. I couldnt get all the way to the airport so I drove until I found a sign on the expressway that informed drivers that the airport exit was coming up.
  
• Which image is your favorite? Why? Elaborate.
• My favorite image was my photo for culture. I didn't know the meaning behind the hotel or mural on the hotel. I knew that for culture I wanted a mural painting that looked in some way cultural. When I did my research I found out that the hotel is made to be a home away from home for people from Europe and there are many branches of this hotel in over 50 countries in the world.
  
• How prevalent is the evidence of globalization in Philadelphia? Do you think it is more or less so (evident) than in other large cities in the US? Why Why not?
• I think globalization is prevalent in Philadelphia. I think that it is probably equally evident in other large cities. All of my examples for globalization, other cities have those things also, like restaurants, airports, money, banks, hospitals/health insurance,apple stores, gas stations and a place where government officials meet.
  

​Here it is!

The most difficult part of this project was finding concrete examples of vague and intangible forms of globalization, such as "energy" or "human rights." Ultimately, I was able to make a list of things to photograph, and biked all around the city taking pictures. My favorite picture is the one of the Lukoil gas station, because it's such a pedestrian sight and yet such a perfect example of globalization through trade, not to mention an illustration of recent US-Russia relations. I think globalization is ubiquitous in Philadelphia. Virtually all technology is made overseas. Clothes are almost always from Asia, and it's necessary to make an extra effort to find American-made products. I think globalization is prevalent throughout the United States, but perhaps less so in land-locked states, who don't have immediate access to trade and travelers from overseas.

Pulse aquí

Here is my 4th Quarter Benchmark. 

• What did you find most challenging about this project? Choosing what to take pictures of was definitely the most challenging part to me. 
• How did you go about collecting the images or selecting the images? Some of the were pre-thought out, others just came to when I was about and about. 
• Which image is your favorite? Why? Elaborate. My favorite image had to be the one of the Italian Fiat I took because I was really lucky to get a shot of it when they are still so rare and it was perfect for what I wanted to talk about since I love cars. 
• How prevalent is the evidence of globalization in Philadelphia? Do you think it is more or less so (evident) than in other large cities in the US? Why Why not? I think that Globalization is very prevalent in Philadelphia and other large cities because with large cities, it's like there is one blueprint for success. And each large city around the world contributes a little bit to it. But they all follow it so they are taking pieces of each other
   

​Here it is!

Reflection:
The most challenging thing about this project was coming up with things that I could easily find in Philadelphia that could represent the different aspects of globalization. Some of them were not all that hard to think of, but others were very hard. I first thought that I would just walk around the city taking pictures of things that I saw. I thought that as I saw things, ideas would come to me and I would take a picture. This method did not work when I went about walking around. I then sat down and thought of ideas for pictures that I could take in my head and where I could take them. This method worked a lot better. I think that my favorite image is the one of the solar panels. Although it is kind of hard to see them in the picture, they are good for representing that aspect of globalization which is environment and energy. I took the picture of my neighbor's roof because his house is powered by solar panels. I think that Philadelphia shows an average amount of evidence for globalization compared to other cities. As I said in my project, I think that immigration is the most important element of globalization so probably cities that have a lot of immigrants are what show evidence of globalization the most. Probably cities like San Diego or Los Angeles which have a lot of Mexican immigrants, or Boston which has a lot of Irish immigrants.

Click here to view my benchmark. 

Reflection
The most challenging part of this project, by far, was finding a connection between the themes of this class and places in Philadelphia.  Although we live in a very diverse city, examples of globalization are not as evident as one might imagine.  It took a lot of creative thinking to complete this benchmark.  

Most of my pictures required a special trip, whether it was to the Philadelphia Zoo or to Chinatown.  However, I was able to take two of them while I was in the city for other reasons.  GlaxoSmithKline and the flags that line the Parkway are on an average day's route, so those picture were easily to take.  My favorite picture is the one taken in Malawi, in front of a school constructed by buildOn and the local village.  It perfectly connects to the globalization of education and brings back wonderful memories of my trip last year. 

While some examples of globalization are evident in Philadelphia, certain topics, such as international politics and security, are much more difficult.  In cities with higher immigrant populations, like New York, or cities with an international focus (i.e. Washington, DC) globalization would be easier to evidence. 

Click here for Capstone